About

The Official Gazette is the official journal of the Republic of the Philippines.

This website, the national government portal, is updated regularly with speeches, reports, statements, press releases, and documents from the Office of the President and other departments of the Philippine government.

The Republic of the Philippines is a sovereign state in archipelagic Southeast Asia, with 7,107 islands spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers of territory. It is divided into three island groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines was named after Prince Philip (later King Philip II) of Spain, by the Spanish explorer Ruy Lopez de Villalobos during his 1542-1546 expedition to the islands.

The Philippines is a unitary presidential constitutional republic, with the President of the Philippines acting as both the head of state and the head of government. It proclaimed its independence from the Spanish Empire on June 12, 1898, following the culmination of the Philippine Revolution.

Check out The Philippines At A Glance for quick and easy access to information about the Philippine economy, poverty incidence, employment, infrastructure, education, healthcare, and the like, as well as some of the government’s most important programs.

Briefing Room

The Office of the Presidential Spokesperson (OPS) forms part of the national government’s communications arm. The OPS Secretary and Undersecretary speak on behalf of the President and are the primary sources of information regarding current issues and concerns related to the President.

The official chronicle, for the record, of the activities and undertakings of the Chief Executive on any given day.

This continues the tradition begun in the Official Gazette first, with the Official Month in Review from the Roxas to Quirino administrations, and then the Official Week in Review from the Magsaysay to Marcos administrations, until Martial Law. Eventually, press releases from the Aquino to Arroyo administrations, which served to chronicle the Chief Executive’s day, will be incorporated here.

The ABC for PSIP was derived using the DepEd’s cost for single and two-storey classroom construction, considering efficiencies brought about by the use of new technologies in construction and by economies of scale. This translates to a cost of P620,812 per single storey classroom, inclusive of toilets and furniture; and a cost of P1,062,890 for a two-storey classroom, inclusive of toilets, and furniture.

Of the required 9,301 classrooms, 69 percent are two-storey buildings, while 31 percent are single-storey buildings.

Since the Project is a lease, other costs are factored in such as maintenance costs, financing costs, and taxes. The inclusion of periodic maintenance every 4.5 years ensures the durability of the structures and helps extend their design life. The financing costs, on the other hand, represent the cost of using private sector money to construct the classrooms today and pay it back over a period of ten years. Meanwhile, although tax payments are factored in the cost, these ultimately revert back to government as part of internal revenues.

Of the six prequalified bidders, BF Corporation-Riverbanks Development Corporation and Citicore Investment Holdings-Megawide Construction Corporation submitted technical and financial proposals for the Project. The technical submissions of these two bidders were opened last July 18, 2012.

After close review and evaluation, the Prequalification, Bids and Award Committee and its Technical Working Group found that the two technical proposals, including the mock up structures constructed in Malolos City, Bulacan, are compliant with the PSIP’s Minimum Performance Standards and Specifications.

“Many are called but few are chosen,” said Secretary of Education Br. Armin A. Luistro FSC as he congratulated the bidders and thanked all the agencies that helped the Department reach this milestone. “What was once unimaginable—closing classroom shortage—is finally within our reach. Now we can say that it is possible because we worked together and we did this for over 20 million young people, to provide them access to quality education.”

“We have always been at the fore of groundbreaking this (PPP) process, now we can truly push for real public-private partnership—an engagement that goes beyond a purely business venture but one that engages the rest of the nation in planting seeds of hope,” Luistro added.

The DepEd expects to issue the Notice of Award to the two bidders within the next four weeks.